When I signed up for my eyelid surgery, I got six microdermabrasion/chemical peels. Because nothing says, “thanks for paying us to cut your eyelids,” like a few free chemical facial masks. Needless to say, once I had the surgery, I wasn’t in the mood to be slathered in acids. So I waited a bit. Until this very week, when I went back to claim my prize.

First the microdermabrasion, which is applied with a pretty cool tool: a hose shoots aluminum oxide crystals through a wand that has a vacuum system, so it blows the crystals onto your skin and sucks ’em back up as they bounce off the skin. The whole thing was entirely painless. Then there’s the application of chemicals. In layers. After the first one, the technician paused for a few moments, then said, “On a scale of one to ten, how painful does it feel?” My skin pretty much felt like the inside of your mouth feels after you eat a few Red Hots. “I don’t know,” I told her, “Maybe almost one?” That answer meant I got another coating of chemicals. Still nothing more than a few more Red Hots. A couple of other layers, none of which felt bad, but a few of which smelled pretty awful. One last layer, and suddenly my skin felt like the inside of your mouth when you eat too many jalapenos. But that was the end, so it wasn’t bad at all.

I looked a little red and shiny, but that was the extent of it. Until the past couple of days, when I find myself all peely — and broken out on my chin. I hate it! I think I have more zits on my chin than I did throughout all of my teen years. I took one look at it and decided, “That’s it! No more chemicals!” This is supposed to be a six week process. No way. It’s one thing to pump me full of chemicals and cut me up and sew me back together. I mean, that’s a one day thing and then it’s all just getting back to normal. Dramatic but quick. This slow, drag-on-for-six-weeks thing? Nuh uh. Not gonna happen.

I think it’s a vata thing, not unlike my response to a slow adjustments, lengthy explanations, drawn out meetings: UGH! Sanskrit Scholar laughed one day when we were doing something slowly and I told her I get confused and disoriented if I can’t move quickly. Kind of like how I read two books for work over the past two days. Great books, great ideas — I read ’em, documented the important parts for our project, and will pretty much forget 99% of it within a couple of days. Except for a few important bullet points. I guess that’s why I’m so addicted to documentation — without it, I’d forget everything.

Haha! Okay, so the difference here is that pitta finishes things and vata goes on endlessly, and that pitta remembers 1% and vata forgets everything? I am highly amused. If this is the case, I think my work life and family responsibilites have transformed me into a pitta (I *always* finish things and always have my “bullet point learnings.”) If I were left to my own devices, however, I would just wander around aimlessly.

I always associate pitta with quick anger. I don’t have that, for the most part… Though now that I think of it, when I do, it is work-related.